Apparatus for feeding foil



Jan. 14, 1941. v 2 H; 2,228,764

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FOIL Filed March 15, 1939 v 2 Sheets-Sheet l a W ATT'ORNEYS Jan. 14, 1941.

H. FL H ILD APPARATUS ,FOR FEEDING FOIL Filed March 15, 1939 Patented Jan. 14, 1941 UNITED STATES APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FOIL Henry Frank Hild, Plainfield, N. J., assignor to Condenser Corporation of America, South Plainiield, N. 1., a corporation of New York Application March 15, 1939, Serial No. 261,952

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a feeding mechanism for feeding foil strips to a mandrel on which they are to be wound in conjunction with insulating strips into condenser rolls.

5 The principal object of the invention is to facilitate feeding of the foil strips so that the foil does not tear and also so that if a foil strip being wound into the roll should not happen to be firmly held at the mandrel it will still feed into 1c. the mandrel when the mandrel is turned.

The invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description considered with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

5 Fig. 1 illustrates a side view of a winding apparatus and strip-feeding mechanism constructed according to this invention, associated with the winding apparatus.

Fig. 2 shows a detail view of the relative posi- 20 tions of insulator strips and foil strips at a winditng mandrel, which may be encountered In pracice;

Fig. 3 shows a detail of an idler wheel mechanism constructed according to this invention;

25 and Fig. 4 shows a mandrel pin, for use with the winding mandrel shown in Figs. 1 and 2; and

5 shows a top view of the apparatus of 30 The winding machine comprises a frame Ill supporting a vertical panel II which supports eight pins, I2 to I9, carrying rotatable bushings I2 to I9- respeetively, which hold rolls of foil and insulating material such as paper. Rolls I,

2, 3 and 4 are paper rolls and rolls 90 and 3| are foil rolls. At the opposite end of frame from the panel there is fastened a stud 2I on which is journaled a hand wheel 22 which acts as a manually rotatable mandrel support. The hand 40 wheel is provided with three radial arms 23, 24 and 25, each of which carries a hub 26', 21' and 28', respectively in which are respectively journaled bushings 26, 21 and 23, respectively, through which protrude grooved mandrels 23, 30

4 and 3|, respectively, fixed to their respective bushings. Each of the bushings is free to rotate within its hub or bearirig26', 21"or 28' (see Fig. and at the back end of each bushing there is fastened a collar provided with a driv- 50 ing pin 33 (shown in Fig. 5). A mandrel pin 34 having a head 35, shown in Fig. 4, is adapted by placing it in the groove in each mandrel, and inserting the end of the pin into the bushing and the end of the mandrel into the space 35' in the 55 pin head 35, to hold the assembled strips of foil and paper in layers between the pin and the groove to cause them to wind up into the condenser roll when the mandrel isrotated.

Any source of power may be used for driving the mandrels. There is shown a power driven 5 shaft M (Fig. 5) having at the end a collar 43 with a driving pin 44 which, when the hand wheel 22 is in the position of Figs. 1 and 5, engages the driving pin 33 of the mandrel bushing collar with which it is in engagement; being thereby enabled to drive that mandrel and wind the foil and paper strips into the condenser roll. For this purpose, the strips of foil and insulation are carried from their respective rolls over pin and under pin 202 to the mandrel. one mandrel is wound up with the required num ber of turns, its rotation may be stopped and the hand wheel 22 may then be turned 120 degrees to bring the next succeeding mandrel into operating relation with the source oi power. 20 The strips of foil and insulation are suitably cut and the roll held in place by a sticker.

The strips are fed to the mandrel from the rolls through a foil perforating device 46 which facilitates the severing of the foil strips when the roll is completed. This device is not described in detail here as it is no part of the invention claimed herein; and its construction and operation are more particularly described and claimed in my copending application, Se-

mandrel .winding is about completed. This mechanism comprising rods 92 and 92', pawl 94, spring 82 and ratchet wheels 81 and 88 on the foil roll spindles, described and claimed in my said copending application, Serial No. 261,953, is no part of the foil feeding apparatus of the 0 present invention and is therefore not described in detail herein.

The foil feeding mechanism for facilitating the feed of the foil strips to the mandrel according to this invention, comprises idler wheels I60 and ISI, the wheel I60 being held in frictional engagement with the peripheries of foil roll 90 and paper or insulating roll 2, and the other wheel I6I being held in frictional engagement with the peripheries of foil roll 9' I and the paper or' 50 insulating roll 4. The top wheel I60 is journaled on the end of an arm I62, the opposite end of this arm being pivoted on a lever arm I63. One end of lever I63 is pivoted at the pin of the paper roll 2 and the other end has a weight I64 for When 15 V causing the idler wheel to rest firmly on the peripheries oi rolls 80 and 2. By this arrangement the idler wheel I" is always maintained at the same definite frictional engagement with each of rolls ill and 2, regardless of the reduction in diameter of the rolls as their contents are used up.

The lower idler wheel iil is similarly mounted on a journal on the lower end of arm I85, the upper end of which is pivoted on the end of lever arm I66 journaled on the pin of roll 4. The opposite end of this latter lever I66 carries a weight I61 which always pulls the idler wheel up against the two rolls 4 and M. v

It will be appreciated that the rotation of one of the insulating rolls, for example, the paper roll 2 by the pulling of the paper due to rotation of the mandrel, will cause the idler 160 to rotate and to impart the proper rotation to the foil roll 90, thus tending to feed the foil along with the paper.

The invention is particularly advantageous in that the foil is under less tension during the winding operation when this idler wheel foil feed is used and consequently the machine can be run at higher speeds or weaker foil can be used without appreciable foil breakage. The invention is also advantageous with respect to the feeding of the foil strips, which in the condenser rolling practice, have their ends well within the ends of the paper or insulating strips in order to prevent touching and short-circuiting of the foils. Since the foil ends are spaced back of the paper or insulating strip ends, the foil may not always be held by the mandrel; this arrangement being shown in Fig. 2. If there were no means for positively feedingthefoil the rotation of the mandrel in such a case would roll up the paper or insulation, but since there is insufficient friction between the insulation and foil strips back of the mandrel the foils would remain stae tionary. But by the provision of the idler wheels I60 and IN according to this invention, the foil strips are fed forward at the same rate as the paper strips even though the foils are in the position of Fig. 2.

By the useof the device, the loss of time and waste of paper which would be occasioned by the winding of rolls without any foil, is eliminated.

It is further noted that each idler wheel is causing the foil driven by it to feed at substantially the same rate as the paper which. is driving the idler wheel, thereby reducing the tension (in the foil and minimizing breakage of the lat- Although the foil feeding devices of this invention, comprising the wheels I60 and lil and associated levers are illustrated in connectionwith this particular winding mechanism, it should be understood that it is useful also with other types of winding mechanisms'in which insulator strips and foil strips are wound on a mandrel.

I claim:

1. In a winding machine having a driven mandrel on which a plurality of foil and insulating strips are wound into a condenser roll: a plurality of roll holders which support rolls of the foil and insulating strips which are to be wound into the condenser rolls, and an idler wheel having its periphery maintained in frictional engagement with the peripheries of a foil roll and of an adjacent insulating strip roll in spite of rela- 2. In a winding machine having a mandrel on tive changes in diameters of any of the rolls so which a plurality of foil and insulating strips are wound into a condenser roll: a plurality of roll holders which support rolls of the foil and insulating strips which are to be wound into the condenser roll, a freely rotating wheel having its axis of rotation movable, a device which urges said axis in the direction for maintaining the periphery of said wheel in frictional engagement with the peripheries of a foil roll and of an insulating strip roll in spite of relativechanges in the diameters of any of said rolls for driving the foil to the mandrel at substantially the same lineal speed at which the insulating strip is moving to the mandrel.

3. In a winding machine having a mandrel on which a plurality of foil and insulating strips are wound into a condenser roll: a roll holder on which a roll of foil strip may be supported and a roll holder on which a roll of insulating strip may be supported, so that said strips may be led from the respective rolls to the mandrel to be rolled up together, an idling wheel having its axis of rotation journalled to a first lever, a second lever iournaled on a fixed pivot, said first lever being pivoted to the second lever, and a device for urging the second lever to rotate on said fixed pivot in a direction to pullthe periphery of the idler wheel into contact with the peripheries of both the foil roll and the insulating strip roll in the diameters of said rolls.

HENRY FRANK mm). 

